25 U.S. Code § 4221 - Definitions

The term “Department of Hawaiian Home Lands” or “Department” means the agency or department of the government of the State of Hawaii that is responsible for the administration of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, 1920 (42 Stat. 108 et seq.).

The Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, 1920, referred to in pars. (1) and (4)(B), is act July 9, 1921, ch. 42, 42 Stat. 108, as amended, which was classified generally to sections 691 to 718 of Title 48, Territories and Insular Possessions, and was omitted from the Code.

This chapter, referred to in par. (5), was in the original “this Act”, meaning Pub. L. 104–330, Oct. 26, 1996, 110 Stat. 4016, known as the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act of 1996. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see Short Title note set out under section 4101 of this title and Tables.

“Except as otherwise expressly provided in this title [enacting this subchapter], this title shall take effect on the date of the enactment of the American Homeownership and Economic Opportunity Act of 2000 [Pub. L. 106–569, approved Dec. 27, 2000].”

“Except as otherwise expressly provided in this title [enacting this subchapter], this title shall take effect on the date of the enactment of the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Amendments of 2000 [probably should be the Hawaiian Homelands Ownership Act of 2000, title II of Pub. L. 106–568, approved Dec. 27, 2000].”

pursuant to the provisions of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, 1920 (42 Stat. 108 et seq.) [former 48 U.S.C. 691 et seq.], the United States set aside 200,000 acres of land in the Federal territory that later became the State of Hawaii in order to establish a homeland for the native people of Hawaii—Native Hawaiians;

“(4)

despite the intent of Congress in 1920 to address the housing needs of Native Hawaiians through the enactment of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, 1920 (42 Stat. 108 et seq.), Native Hawaiians eligible to reside on the Hawaiian home lands have been foreclosed from participating in Federal housing assistance programs available to all other eligible families in the United States;

“(5)

although Federal housing assistance programs have been administered on a racially neutral basis in the State of Hawaii, Native Hawaiians continue to have the greatest unmet need for housing and the highest rates of overcrowding in the United States;

“(6) among the Native American population of the United States, Native Hawaiians experience the highest percentage of housing problems in the United States, as the percentage—

“(A) of housing problems in the Native Hawaiian population is 49 percent, as compared to—

“(i)

44 percent for American Indian and Alaska Native households in Indian country; and

overcrowding in the Native Hawaiian population is 36 percent as compared to 3 percent for all other households in the United States;

“(7) among the Native Hawaiian population, the needs of Native Hawaiians, as that term is defined in section 801 of the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act of 1996 [25 U.S.C. 4221] (as added by this subtitle), eligible to reside on the Hawaiian Home Lands are the most severe, as—

one-third of those Native Hawaiians who are eligible to reside on the Hawaiian Home Lands pay more than 30 percent of their income for shelter, and one-half of those Native Hawaiians face overcrowding;

“(10)

the extraordinarily severe housing needs of Native Hawaiians demonstrate that Native Hawaiians who either reside on, or are eligible to reside on, Hawaiian Home Lands have been denied equal access to Federal low-income housing assistance programs available to other qualified residents of the United States, and that a more effective means of addressing their housing needs must be authorized;

“(11)

consistent with the recommendations of the National Commission on American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian Housing, and in order to address the continuing prevalence of extraordinarily severe housing needs among Native Hawaiians who either reside or are eligible to reside on the Hawaiian Home Lands, Congress finds it necessary to extend the Federal low-income housing assistance available to American Indians and Alaska Natives under the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act of 1996 (25 U.S.C. 4101 et seq.) to those Native Hawaiians;

“(12)

under the treatymaking power of the United States, Congress had the constitutional authority to confirm a treaty between the United States and the government that represented the Hawaiian people, and from 1826 until 1893, the United States recognized the independence of the Kingdom of Hawaii, extended full diplomatic recognition to the Hawaiian Government, and entered into treaties and conventions with the Hawaiian monarchs to govern commerce and navigation in 1826, 1842, 1849, 1875, and 1887;

Native Hawaiians have a cultural, historic, and land-based link to the indigenous people who exercised sovereignty over the Hawaiian Islands, and that group has never relinquished its claims to sovereignty or its sovereign lands;

“(B)

Congress does not extend services to Native Hawaiians because of their race, but because of their unique status as the indigenous people of a once sovereign nation as to whom the United States has established a trust relationship;

“(C)

Congress has also delegated broad authority to administer a portion of the Federal trust responsibility to the State of Hawaii;

“(D)

the political status of Native Hawaiians is comparable to that of American Indians and Alaska Natives; and

“(15) in the area of housing, the United States has recognized and reaffirmed the political relationship with the Native Hawaiian people through—

“(A)

the enactment of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, 1920 (42 Stat. 108 et seq.), which set aside approximately 200,000 acres of public lands that became known as Hawaiian Home Lands in the Territory of Hawaii that had been ceded to the United States for homesteading by Native Hawaiians in order to rehabilitate a landless and dying people;

“(B) the enactment of the Act entitled ‘An Act to provide for the admission of the State of Hawaii into the Union’, approved March 18, 1959 (73 Stat. 4) [Pub. L. 86–3, 48 U.S.C. note prec. 491]—

“(i)

by ceding to the State of Hawaii title to the public lands formerly held by the United States, and mandating that those lands be held in public trust, for the betterment of the conditions of Native Hawaiians, as that term is defined in section 201 of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, 1920 (42 Stat. 108 et seq.); and

“(ii)

by transferring the United States responsibility for the administration of Hawaiian Home Lands to the State of Hawaii, but retaining the authority to enforce the trust, including the exclusive right of the United States to consent to any actions affecting the lands which comprise the corpus of the trust and any amendments to the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, 1920 (42 Stat. 108 et seq.), enacted by the legislature of the State of Hawaii affecting the rights of beneficiaries under the Act;

“(C)

the authorization of mortgage loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration for the purchase, construction, or refinancing of homes on Hawaiian Home Lands under the National Housing Act (Public Law 479; 73d Congress; 12 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.);

the inclusion of Native Hawaiians in the definition under section 3764 [now 3765] of title 38, United States Code, applicable to subchapter V of chapter 37 of title 38, United States Code (relating to a housing loan program for Native American veterans); and